Falkirk v Livi

I actually lost my temper once, as at the time I thought the 'foul' on McKenna was a penalty, so for some reason I called the referee a 'fucking mason cunt'. Fuck knows why I shouted that, I'm gonna get a lifetime banning order sooner or later. Probably not a bad thing if you support Livingston, though.

Well that was depressing, easily the worst I've seen us play this season, esp the first half. Had no pressing, didn't mark players inside our box and allowed them time and space to pick out a cross for their goals. The first goal Dycey (sure it was him this time) gave the guy acres to line up his cross and their player that scored had a free header. Good cross and goal, lovely passing leading up to it ripping us apart all over the pitch, but for me it was us making them look work class with the lack effort we put in. We looked lethargic and half asleep at times, had no urgency at all as we sauntered up the pitch, DJ had to wait several seconds for our players to get up the pitch before any turned around to look for the ball. Quite frankly that was a team accepting relegation.2nd goal was much the same, passed it about making us look like a pub team and then cut it back for a tap in, think there were 3 or 4 of them waiting for the cut back to knock it in and none were marked. They were actually lining up at times to take shots, we were that fecking bad it was embarrassing.

2nd half was a bit better but just not good enough when we can't score and Jordan White missed another sitter into an open goal which would at least have made the last 10 minutes interesting. Why Ibra came off and he stayed on is bewildering.

Ridiculous that we were made to sit in the front rows of the stand too, had covers over the seats further back to stop anyone sitting up there, bloody sitting targets for any balls hit over the bar and Orco got hit a dull one as she was walking along the row near the front. Would've prob done her a favour had it knocked her out so she didn't have to witness that shite for 90 mins right enough.

Right - I wish I could forget the first half but i can't; the defence played like they'd only just met on the coach.

Using an unfit Gary Glen as a makeshift defender was absolutely ridiculous. Whoever was meant to be right back; I wish they'd let him know; the area was absolutely empty. For young man Fordyce is ridiculously slow; in the centre you're not so exposed but running up and down the wing and he gets skinned time and again; more often than not Gallagher was being pulled over to help out which was leaving Sives and whatever midfielder was hanging around.

As our defence got more and more stressed Mullens and eventually White were pulled back into defence which left Sekajja as our main attack. Sekajja got the square root of bugger all service; he ran about a lot but couldn't get near the ball most of the time.

Perhaps controversially having read other comments but I actually thought O'Brien and Jacobs had a good game; without them coming back and supporting the defence we could have easily have been 5 nil down at half time. I also though Mullens did a good job helping out the defence and the defensive midfield but, as I've said, that left very little to support Sekajja.

Even when we got the ball the defence would punt it aimlessly upfield to one of the Falkirk players.

Second half was much better with the introduction of Hippolyte and McKenna allowing us to properly use the width of the pitch; Hippolyte in particular was a real live wire fighting for everything.

One thing though; does White really know what ball control is? All in all the worst 90 minutes I think he's put in - I've stood up for him before but today he was plain awful.

All in all the setup was totally wrong at the start, Glen should not have been in the side; the defence should have known what they were meant to be doing; there should have been someone partnering Sekajja who knows how to control the ball and pass to the man.

Said last week and sticking by it today, Ibra and Hippo should've been on together up front. Couldn't believe Burchill taking Ibra off at HT and leaving White on, he's as slow as Dycey running for a ball and puts no pressure on defenders when it is hit up the pitch for him to get it.

AFAIK we've 3 players who play RB now, don't know how fit Donaldson and Cole are but they couldn't be any worse playing there than Dycey, and Moffat should've been given a go ages ago. I think most balls causing havoc in defence came from the right and for their first goal Dycey would've been as well not being there for all the pressure he put on the Falkirk player.

Too many players didn't want to take responsibility on the ball today and just lumped it up the pitch (99 times out of 100 straight to a Falkirk player) to get rid of it, rather than take it and look for a pass. Our passing in the first half was atrocious too, looked like a team who hadn't played together before.

It was like a training session for Falkirk at times the way the passed it around and strolled about with the ball, maybe just as well Talbot wasn't playing as I think frustration would've got the better of him watching them rip the piss out of us.

Alloa winning puts both them and Cowden 6 points ahead and I really don't see where we'll make that up.

Edit* For anyone wanting to see how bad we were at closing them down and picking up players for their goals.

I have said before and i will say again the team Burchill put out first half had no chance why because we had four strikers on ! White Mullen Ibra Glen are all forwards we had no midfield at all and Falkirk had a field day . Second half after the changes score was actually 0-0. Dont tell me Mullen and Glen were midfield they are strikers Burchill continually sticks a square peg in a round hole and we are in big trouble

Burchy caused that today in the first half. He played with a narrow diamond with Mullen at the top Keaghan on right Glen on left with Obrien holding.this was against a team that love their fullbacks bombing forward and we gave them the space to do it. It was a crazy set up after we had played so well against Hearts in a flat442. Credit to the manager though as he changed the formation at half time but by that time ithe damage was done. We certainly competed much better in second half and that was a lot to do with us playing a formation that suits us and as you say having 4 midfielders on the pitch.

Thought all the subs played well and I would start with Pitman and Obrien in the centre next week as we need a creative centre midfielder and Pitman looks to be that player.Keaghan is better on the right but should he play in front of McKenna who to me is our only out and out winger with Hippo next in line for that position. However my thoughts are still the same about Hippo as He always let's us down when he starts so would probably keep him as a sub. We need to sort the midfield out and let's play 442 and have a go at teams as we did against Hearts.

I still think we can do it but Burchy needs to concentrate on picking the correct team and stop talking to the press about us being able to win every game left. That is not good for a manager to do. Get the right team on the park stop trying to be Jose Mourihno and changing the formations after we play well. there is a poster on one of our other forums who keeps saying Burchill is not the man. Well if he keeps making daft decisions to play a diamond midfield when we are far better with a flat 442 maybe that poster will be proved correct.

The manager has to take some responsibility regarding yesterday's shambles as he set the team out so wrong. I'm sure he is sensible enough to realise what happened and fix it.

I hope he proves that other poster wrong as I hope he keeps us up and goes on to be a decent manager.

Last edited by Smithy on Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:01 pm; edited 2 times in total

Lexi Collector wrote:Its the fact that the players don't even acknowledge how unacceptable that was. No apologies to the fans t full-time, no applause to the fans for spending time/money on them, nothing on Twitter from them. A bunch of utter imposters this lot, and they can all GTF. Every one of them. Burchill can fuck anaw. I wasn't even surprised or angry during the match, I spent most of laughing and joking with my mates about how utter pish they actually are.

Pass marks today: McKenna and Hippolyte, just fucking start them. I feel sorry for White and I'm sure he's a nice boy, but aye, he's rank. Keags and Gallagher are ridiculously overrated, they were absolutely appalling today. Fordyce is a non-league player. Glenn not interested, Jamieson not interested, Sekajja completely anonymous, as was Rutherford. Sives wasn't horrendous, but he ain't a championship player. If we stay up I'll be stunned, because we are a terrible football team.

A load of absolute fuck.

Lexi, this has been a bug bear of mine for a very long time. Regardless of the manager or the players we've had, they have never had the decency to actually approach the fans and show some form of real appreciation other than the standard happy clapping as they're approaching the tunnel at FT. Because we rightfully gave them abuse for putting in hee haw effort, they went straight down the tunnel and in my opinion, this was cowardly. Someone like O'Brien, Jacobs or DJ should've came over and at least apologised or shown appreciation to the 200 odd away fans who made the effort to see that pile of pish. We might be a moany bunch but we're also the ones who contribute towards their earnings, however big or small.

We need to sort the defense out, I've said it all season, horrendous, if it wasn't for DJ and Baird & Loy missing sitters that game would of been a rout!!!

What the point defending well against Hearts then that sh*** on Saturday.

Also we create feck all chances, granted one came to White he missed a sitter but that was from a defection it's ridiculous also some fans just expect to score from thin air, open your eyes, we need to defend and we need to create clear cut chances as Falkirk did against us - if we do we'll pick up 15 points I reckon between now and the end of the season and that will be enough to keep us in this league.

However we need to play with the correct formation and as for Gary Glen the guy frustrates me he doesn't seem to give a toss, seen it so many times this season, thinks he's better than us or something, he has ability but these wee injuries and a performance here and there is not good enough for one of our top earners no doubt - have a word Burchy! We need players that are workers and give 100% all the time.

We also need a little encouragement cause moaning all the time isn't going help although understandable but I've looked at the fixtures and I actually think Hibs & Rangers aside we can get 15 points as mentioned.

We've had a real tough fixture list of late so it's doable hard to be positive after that performance but the last time we played Raith we scudded them 5-1 so we can get another win over them I sure, a much needed win.

Lexi Collector wrote:Its the fact that the players don't even acknowledge how unacceptable that was. No apologies to the fans t full-time, no applause to the fans for spending time/money on them, nothing on Twitter from them. A bunch of utter imposters this lot, and they can all GTF. Every one of them. Burchill can fuck anaw. I wasn't even surprised or angry during the match, I spent most of laughing and joking with my mates about how utter pish they actually are.

Pass marks today: McKenna and Hippolyte, just fucking start them. I feel sorry for White and I'm sure he's a nice boy, but aye, he's rank. Keags and Gallagher are ridiculously overrated, they were absolutely appalling today. Fordyce is a non-league player. Glenn not interested, Jamieson not interested, Sekajja completely anonymous, as was Rutherford. Sives wasn't horrendous, but he ain't a championship player. If we stay up I'll be stunned, because we are a terrible football team.

A load of absolute fuck.

Lexi, this has been a bug bear of mine for a very long time. Regardless of the manager or the players we've had, they have never had the decency to actually approach the fans and show some form of real appreciation other than the standard happy clapping as they're approaching the tunnel at FT. Because we rightfully gave them abuse for putting in hee haw effort, they went straight down the tunnel and in my opinion, this was cowardly. Someone like O'Brien, Jacobs or DJ should've came over and at least apologised or shown appreciation to the 200 odd away fans who made the effort to see that pile of pish. We might be a moany bunch but we're also the ones who contribute towards their earnings, however big or small.

Nah, you're right it lacks a lot of class. Having said that, fair play to McKenna/Mullen (not sure which one it was, as they both usually acknowledge the fans well) but one of them did applaud at FT. Regardless of the result, number of supporters there and how angry the fans have shown themselves to be, there should always be an applause. We're the ones who've paid good money and spent an entire Saturday to travel and support them. We pay their pages, and we're on their side. Everyone who played a part in the game + the manager should at least acknowledge that. DJ, Mullen and McKenna are usually good, but the rest couldn't seem to care less, lack of class. Burchill won't give a fuck though, so it won't change.

Said in LL, DJ, Talbot and Kyle are the ones who show emotion and commitment during games, all 3 have been slagged off by our fans but you can't fault their fight in games. Talbot and DJ especially show anger and frustration when we're playing shite, and DJ has come on twitter to apologize to the fans when the team has underperformed.I hope there are a few training ground bust ups this week because a few players are in need of a kick up the arse after that embarrassment.

Nothing less than a 100% against Raith on Sat is acceptable, we desperately need the 3 points here as we've Hibs & Sevco after that and Alloa and Cowden play the Edin teams so catching up 3 points is a must. We need to keep in touch with them coming up to when we play them again, and beat both of them or we're def relegated.

Bertie Bassett wrote:McKenna an out & out winger? Really? With his lack of pace or final ball?

I would say the last real winger we had was Bobby Barr; Keaghan can play wide but I wouldn't even say he was a winger.

McKenna's definitely a winger as was Danny Denholm. To be honest I'd also consider Glen as more of a winger than a striker.

Then your definition of a winger is somewhat different to mine. How often do/did any of those guys get to the bye line & cross it? The usually cut inside as they approach the 18 yard line & lose the ball in the congestion.

Smithy wrote:Yeah have them all fighting each other that will be great for team morale.Lf you used to talk a lot of sense but that's the biggest lot of crop I've heard in a long time.

It gets things sorted out so they play better on a Saturday, there are obv players needing a proverbial boot up the arse to play better and put some effort in. Too many were not putting in a performance. The group hug before kick off clearly is all for show as there was no togetherness in the effort being applied.

You really think a wee rosy morale is going to get us out of this, get real, we need fight and everyone pulling their weight. Even the best teams in the world have bust ups to clear the air and play better, it isn't all a utopia out there where nobody has a difference of opinion and words get exchanged.

I'm not saying fisty cuffs, but certainly need some told to buck up their ideas and stop hiding in games. Too many booted the ball aimlessly up the pitch too and didn't want to take on any responsibility, was doing my head in watching it. If all our players are happy with that performance and none want to have a word said about it then I fear we're as good as down.

We've shown we can play a lot better but it's getting late in the day now and we need to put in the same effort for every game left to play.

I think what was concerning was a lack of a tactical approach or game plan. At least against Hearts, we knew we were a limited side so shutting them down early, getting them to make mistakes and hitting them on the counter worked well for us. But because we weren't playing against the best side in the league, the approach and attitude was different. We should've stuck with the same game plan because as we've seen this season, Falkirk build up their play.

And I agree we lacked any sort of leadership from the team that was put out on Saturday. Having Kyle or Talbot in the side to sort them out would've helped greatly, as much as their abilities are limited. Far too many sheeps in that side who wouldn't commit to any leadership or organisation.